Amoung the Maya, slingshots are more than just weapons ...they are art!

Entre la Maya hondas son mas que armas ...son arte.

For longer than anyone knows Mayan men of the Western Highlands of Guatemala have hunted small game with hand-carved slingshots. Lizards, birds, armadillos, squirrels - any animal vulnerable to flying stones, can end up as the main course in the next family meal. To this day men often keep a slingshot near at hand in the hope that some careless creature strays in range.

Not being a hunter, my personal interest in slingshots is as art, specifically folk art, and Guatemalan slingshots, the best of them anyway, are wonderful folk art. So what makes a ‘good’ slingshot good? Over the past thirty plus years, I have rummaged through many many thousands of them and I always look for just one thing. Does it ‘speak’ to me? That’s it. Most don’t. Here are some of the few that do.

Español

Español

Tall Tiger / Tigre Alto

$175 USD / Q1335 QTZ

Green Man / Hombre Verde

$175 USD / Q1335 QTZ

Skinny Man / Flaco

$200 USD / Q1525 QTZ

Ram / Cabro

$225 USD / Q1715 QTZ

Monkey Eating / Mono Comiendo

$125 USD / Q955 QTZ

Parrot / Loro

$150 USD / Q1145 QTZ

Monkey / Mono

$175 USD / Q1335 QTZ

Nude / Desnuda

$175 USD / Q1335 QTZ

Our slingshots are sold without elastic bands as the rubber disintegrates with age. This is an example of how they look in use.español

Here slingshots are not toys. They are weapons, real weapons that were made and used to put meat on the table.

None of the slingshots you find on this site are new. Just how old varies from piece to piece, and is difficult to determine. Some that look ancient may have been used hard for a decade or so years, other looking equally old may have been used sparingly for fifty years or more. In either case the patina and wear you see come from years of use.

One questions I often get is why isn’t the ‘Y’ wider? You would think that the projectile would hit your thumb, and indeed I can tell you from painful personal experience it's true, however there is a simple trick to avoid the suffering. The instant a hunter lets a stone fly, he flicks his wrist forward and downward letting the projectile pass safely over his hand.